Annotto Bay Baptist Church

Statement of Significance

The present structure dates from 1894, but the original church was built in 1824. This historic church was the first Baptist church to be constructed in the parish of St. Mary. Being a Baptist institution in the Pre-Emancipation Era in Jamaica, the church was known for its support of the Abolition Movement. The building itself is of a single rectangular plan form with a pitched roof. All the doors and windows have pilasters, architraves and surrounds executed in plaster, in which various decorative motifs have been cut. Today the Annotto Bay Baptist Church still plays an important role in the parish of St. Mary and is valued for its historical importance.

Historical Significance

It was in 1783 that the first Baptist missionary George Liele arrived in Jamaica. Liele was a black American often credited for the growth of the early Baptist Church in Jamaica. Through Liele’s collaboration with the Baptist Missionary Society in England, the local Baptist movement in Jamaica was able to garner needed support. The Baptists were instrumental in not only Christianizing the enslaved people, but also advocating the message of freedom. Therefore, from 1802, laws were passed with increasing frequency prohibiting proselytisation and ensuring punishment with hard labour if these laws were broken. As a result, the Jamaican Baptist leaders invited the British Baptists to assist in the Jamaica Baptist Movement, so that the local movement could be provided with legitimacy.

In 1814, the first British Baptist, John Rowe, arrived in Trelawny, where he set up a school and later a church. He was later followed by men such as Lee Compere and John Tinson – the first British Missionary to be in charge of education for the enslaved. During this period, the Baptists quickly formed themselves into associations and later unions. It was out of this organising that the Annotto Bay Baptist Church was formed in 1824 by Rev. Ebenezer Phillips, an Englishman. After the death of Rev. Phillips, he was replaced by the Rev. Charles Flood in 1827. In its formative years, the Church was a safe haven for the enslaved people. Therefore, it was one of many Baptist Churches to be vandalised in 1831, due to the enslaved uprising initiative by Baptist enslaved Sam Sharpe. However, in 1835 the church was rebuilt after Wiliam Knibb, and Thomas Burchell secured funds from the British Parliament to rebuild destroyed churches. In 1880, disaster struck Jamaica again in the form of a cyclone, and the Annotto Bay Baptist Church was a casualty. But in 1894, Rev. Charles Barron undertook the task of restoring the Church, and by 1896, it was restored as a ‘fanciful structure’. Much of the decoration of text on the walls and pillars is attributed to him. Interestingly, by 1962 the church had fallen into disrepair again, and the headline “A Beautiful Monument falls in Disrepair”, summed up the condition of the church in the 14th March 1962 edition of the Daily Gleaner. Throughout the 1960s, under the leadership of Rev. Jarrett and in partnership with the Jamaica National Trust Commission, the church was restored. In the 1980s, important repairs to the structure of the Church were also completed. The Church remains an important institution in the parish of St. Mary.

Inherent Features

Annotto Bay Baptist Church is an imaginative structure, built in “village baroque’ style in red and yellow brick. The building stands on the seaward side of the main road leading from Annotto Bay to Port Antonio just beyond the Annotto Bay Police Station. The Church itself is of a single rectangular plan form with a pitched roof. All the doors and windows have pilasters, architraves and surrounds executed in plaster, in which various decorative motifs have been cut. A similar cut plaster bend adorns the interior and exterior walls at cornice height and is inscribed with biblical quotations and other exhortations relating to goodness.

Identity – Local/National/Regional

The Annotto Bay Baptist Church is a reminder of the role played by the Baptists in liberating the enslaved and is valued as a historically significant monument in the community.